laws, people tend to think that the decisions are public even when they are not. it is one that everybody would care about and why we are working on having more people dig in and focus on these election. >> good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show" from new york. 47 days until the 2012 election. at this hour, senator scott brown and elizabeth warren just wrapped up a debate. their first. we'll show you how mitt romney is dragging down republicans all over america. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. when you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot.

>> the president is destroying mitt romney for denigrating half of america. and mitt romney is scrambling to explain his own family's history of welfare. >> my dad had to get finanal h help, the government helped his family to be able to get on their feet again. >> howard fineman on the republican train wreck. and we'll go to boston for live reaction to the elizabeth warren/scott brown debate. mitt romney says, he would have an easier time getting elected if he were mexican. and he uses a slur to describe undocumented immigrants. tonight, we'll go live to miami for reaction from the latino community. and mitt romney's coal miner photo op is backfiring in his face. >> people wonder how they're going to have a brighter future. >> i'll tell you what a mitt romney presidency means for workers. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. it's day four of mitt romney's

47% problem and the issue is not going away. president obama was asked about mitt romney's comments regarding 47% of americans during a town hall event on univision. >> when you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you haven't gotten around a lot. >> mitt romney held his own town hall event on univision last night. suddenly the percentage of americans he cares about has changed. >> my campaign is about the 100% of america and i'men concerned about that. i'm concerned about the fact over the past four years life has become harder for americans. >> romney had a different response to the controversy earlier this week. when he addressed the comments during a late night news conference on monday, romney said his statements were not elegant. but he stood by them. rnc chairman priebus said romney was on message when he said 47%

of americans don't take personal responsibility. what a difference a few days makes, don't you think? today, house speaker john boehner said romney's message was way off. >> both campaigns on both sides say things that get off the message. the message is, let's stay focused on jobs because that's what the american people want us to stay focused on. >> romney, himself, seemed confused about his own message today. the candidate had to address a 40-year-old video showing his mother, lenore romney, talking about her husband who was once on welfare. here's how mitt romney responded to the video at a campaign event in florida. >> my dad was born in mexico, of american parents living there. at age 5 or 6, there was revolution and they came back to the united states. and my dad had to get help, financial help, the government helped his family to be able to get on their feet again. by the way, that's the way america works. we have big hearts. we care for people who have needs. we help get them back. we help lift them up.

then we don't make that a permanent lifestyle. we don't have them become government dependents. we help people. they get them on their feet. and then they build a brighter future. >> where was this belief system when romney was talking to the big money crowd back in may? romney sounds a heck of a lot different than the guy in boca raton who made a character judgment about half country. >> these are people who pay no income tax. 47% of americans pay no income tax. our message of low taxes doesn't connect. out there talking about tax cuts to the rich. that's what they sell every four years, and so my job is not to worry about those people. they should take personal responsibility -- >> okay, so mitt romney seems confused. wait a minute. other republicans have complete clarity on the matter and they're jumping ship. they've had enough. the latest man overboard was romney campaign co-chairman tim pawlenty. pawlenty announced today he's leaving the campaign to become a top wall street lobbyist. pawlenty never met a sinking campaign he couldn't bail out on.

he didn't seek re-election of governor of minnesota after a disasterous second term. he ditched his presidential campaign after bombing in a debate, couldn't confront romney on health care and now he's leaving the struggling romney campaign. tim pawlenty, you know, he's like the canary in the coal mine of republican campaigns. if tim pawlenty goes belly-up, better get out of the mine. ohio governor john kasich also hopped off the romney bus today. he said he didn't agree with romney's comments but added, we have all misspoken. i don't think so, governor. republican senate candidate in hawaii linda lingle told a honolulu newspaper, i'm not a rubber stamp of the national party and i'm not responsible for the statements of mitt romney. virginia senate hopeful george allen was forced to distance himself from romney during a senate debate today. >> you think nearly half the country see themselves as victims because they're too

dependent -- >> i look for positively at the people of have have. >> would you disagree with governor romney on this point? >> i have my own point of view. my point of view is the people of america still believe in the american dream. >> the debate questions might have spooked republican senator scott brown. brown had a scheduled debate with elizabeth warren in massachusetts tonight but all of a sudden claimed he just couldn't make it to the debate because of senate vote in washington. bottom line is, the people have sent me down here to do my job and that's to vote. well, senate majority leader harry reid came to brown's rescue by canceling all further voting for the day. >> mr. president, we've had to stall here for several days now, and i want to make sure that one of senators who wanted to go to a debate would be able to do that tonight. so he can do now, as i announced a half hour ago, plenty ofthyme time to do the debate. >> way to go, harry. the scoreboard shows this.

the president is on the offensive. mitt romney is mixing his messages republicans, they're running out the back door. it was time for damage control at the highest level today, courtesy of karl rove. he wrote a "wall street journal" editorial telling republicans, this, too, shall pass. you better believe it's going to pass, karl. the hopes of the republican party are passing away 47 days before the election. can mitt romney recover? probably not. he's probably the worst presidential candidate the republicans have had in over 100 years. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. do you agree with karl rove? will mitt romney's problems pass? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and leave a comment there. we'll bring you the results later on in the the show. i'm joined tonight by howard fineman, nbc news political analyst, and the editorial director of the "huffington

post" media group. howard, great to have you with us. >> hi, ed. >> why do i feel like the romney campaign is like a rural america, first time ever city commission race? >> well, that's the way a lot of other people see it, including privately, i would say, karl rove. if you read the rest of that piece, he said, this too shall pass, but the next phase is crucial, meaning mitt romney has to get on message, whatever that message ultimately is and perform at a superhuman level and deliver a hard to imagine knockout blow to the president in the first presidential debate. i've covered a lot of these campaign, ed, and i watched some succeed and i watched them fall apart. this one at this point, 47 days before the election, looks like a slow motion train wreck. >> it's in trouble. no question. what do you make of mitt romney talking about his dad getting government assistance after

slamming those very people behind closed doors that was supposed to be off the record, not for media consumption? what does this tell us? >> well, what it tells you is he's lurching from one side of a message to the other. this is characteristic of him. this has been the way mitt romney has been as a politician all along. it's what the republicans who ran against him in the primaries criticized. and it's not just ideological changes or confusion. it's the fact that because he veers off course in one direction, he feels in the next news cycle he's got to veer off course in the other direction. and thereby raises even more questions than he answers. for example, if he had the story of his own father and how the government had helped his own father in a time of need, if he really had taken that to heart, he wouldn't have said what he said behind closed doors to those people at the fund-raiser.

so it all just raises more questions. every time he lurches from one side to another, he overcorrects and raises more questions. that's where he's been from the beginning. >> i'll say it, it paints the picture of a phony. how else do you do it? he's not willing to say it. if he's proud of the fact, he should have said it behind closed doors to those donors and they probably would have respected him. >> i think they would have. >> it wouldn't have changed their vote at all. okay. i kind of view the romney airplane as a football team who had a road trip and they got their butt kicked and they're on their way home and nobody's saying anything on the airplane. what about that? >> well, we've shifted to transportation metaphors. i would say it's very interesting right now, ed, because we've talked a lot and written about -- i've reported a

lot about the independent superpacs. about the rich guys with all their money who can come in and float the campaign and drive a campaign to victory. but those same people aren't beholden to the campaign. and if they decide that the campaign is a loser, if they decide that they're throwing good money after bad, if they decide they've got to suspend in order to get right with the likely winner, i.e. barack obama, then that would be the true nightmare for the romney campaign because the romney campaign has depended on the kindness of strangers, if you will. people who have no great ideological commitment to mitt romney or personal commitment to mitt romney, but who wanted him to win for one reason, because they thought he was the easiest, safest way to beat barack obama. that turned out, it seems so far, to be utterly wrong and the next thing i'm waiting to see is some of those big donor types go in other directions. i think already karl rove's organization, cross roads, is focusing much more on senate races, trying to stem the tide in the senate, house races, even state and local races. they're not necessarily going to throw good money after bad to the romney campaign. >> howard fineman, great to have you on "the ed show" tonight. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, ed. >> remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow and on facebook. we want to know what you think.

coming up the senate is looking better for the democrats by the day and karl rove is taking notice. wisconsin candidate tammy baldwin joins me next. and later, we'll have all the highlights from the first debate between massachusetts senator scott brown and his challenger, elizabeth warren. it got ugly early on. we'll take you live to boston later on. stay tuned. you're watching "the ed show" on msnbc. ♪ [ female announcer ] pop in a whole new kind of clean. with tide pods. just one removes more stains than the 6 next leading pacs combined pop in. stand out.

coming up, the 47% comments are taking a toll in the polls. republicans like tommy thompson of wisconsin acknowledge they could take a hit as well. thompson's challenger, tammy baldwin, joins me next. later, mitt romney tries to win over the latino voters with new ads but he still won't get down to specifics on his policies. and we'll have a full analysis of the debate between massachusetts senator scott brown and challenger, elizabeth warren, with boston city councillor felix arroyo. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using

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welcome back to "the ed show." the bad fortunes of mitt romney may be impacting down-ballot senate races. let's start with the big picture. mitt romney is clearly hurting himself. for the first time since his 47% remark, a poll shows voters, they don't like it. 36% say that they are less likely to vote for romney because of his remarks, compared to only 20% who say that they are more likely to vote for him. among independents, the margin is also 2-1 against romney's remarks. as for the senate races, a top election analyst put it this way. "i'm not prone to hyperbole, but gop senate map is imploding. chance of a takeover now just 21%." now, let's take a look at the

state of wisconsin. one of my favorites. the latest poll shows president obama widening his lead over mitt romney to seven points in this vital swing state. senate candidate congresswoman tammy baldwin, our next guess, has also been surging in the latest polls and it's gotten the attention of karl rove, which i think is good. cross roads gps made a $961,000 ad buy against baldwin this week. meanwhile, baldwin's opponent, former governor tommy thompson, is complaining about romney's effect on his fortunes. he says, "the presidential thing is bound to have an impact on every election" thompson said. "you know, whether you're a democrat or republican, if you're standard bearer for the presidency is not doing well, it's going to reflect on the down-ballot." we sure hope so. let's turn to congresswoman tammy baldwin of wisconsin, now a candidate for the senate. thank you for your time tonight. >> it's great to join you, ed.

thank you. >> you bet. i know a little bit about the state. i know liberals and progressives and free thinkers in wisconsin cannot stand karl rove. that's the one guy on the conservative side they have no time for. in some funny way, could it help you that he's targeting you now with a buy of such substantial number of over $900,000 to motivate your base? >> you know, i think what's happening in the state of wisconsin, and why you're seeing the polls move the way you are, is that people who are hardworking and trying to get ahead want somebody who's going to fight for them and not somebody who's going to fight for the big special interests. they see somebody like karl rove or my opponent who stands for getting more power for the big money and special interests in washington. they have enough power already. they have enough representation. people want somebody who's going to fight for them, and i think when they see karl rove come in and buy up nearly $1 million of airtime in wisconsin, they're saying, who is this guy for? and they're seeing who i'm for.

so i think that's a lot to do with why we're seeing the poll numbers go the way they are. >> and this 47% remark that mitt romney made back in may, which has gotten big play all week long, does it affect wisconsin voters? does this really describe who the republicans are, who the conservatives are? how does it play in wisconsin? >> first of all, i think people are shocked and disappointed as i am to hear and see those remarks. you know, he said he didn't care about almost half the population. and i think, though, wisconsinites will judge each candidate individually, which is why i was particularly surprised to see my opponent, tommy, go on fox news yesterday and defend those remarks of mitt romney, try to explain them. look, we need somebody who's going to go to the u.s. senate to fight for the hardworking families of wisconsin. that's what people are going to be thinking about. they're going to be thinking about jobs and the economy moving forward when they into the polling place november 6th. >> tommy thompson has name recognition probably as good as

anybody in wisconsin, but he's got bush baggage. he was in that administration. why are you surging in the polls? what's happening? >> well, i think you just named it. as people are, you know, tommy left the state after serving as governor, joined the bush administration, and first in his role as a public servant in that administration he gave a sweetheart deal to the drug companies with the medicare part "d" benefit. he oversaw the writing into federal law of a provision that says medicare can't bargain with the drug companies for better drug prices for seniors. and it has cost us dearly. tens of billions of dollars, unfunded in that particular package. but if that weren't enough, when he left public service, he joined forces with some of the lobbyists who represent the very same interests, and he's advising them, consulting with them, et cetera. people see the tommy who has now returned to the state to run for u.s. senate and say, he's not

fighting for us, he's not sticking up for us anymore. and they know i am. and that is really why you're seeing some movement in wisconsin. >> what about wisconsin's, the last two years. the political history and the ledger of the last two years. is there any sort of political exhaustion that's taking place? the recall, of course, the democrats got the senate back. walker retained his seat. although there's been a judge's ruling that takes away what he really wanted to do when it came to collective bargaining. i mean, there's just been a lot of stuff. one petition after another, one election after another, it's been one political ad after another. i mean, it's been ground zero of politics in america over the last two years. does that help or hurt you in any way? >> well, first of all, i think you're right, that there was some exhaustion, especially among the people who work so

hard. and some people have taken a little bit of a rest during the early part of the summer, but i can tell you, over the last couple of months, people are reengaged because they understand what this fight is about. >> yeah. >> this fight for our future. this fight going forward. we, you know, maybe some people think that it was the practice round, but, look, the stakes in this election moving forward at the presidential level, at the u.s. senate level, at the house level, are huge. and it's really about a fair economy. one set of rules that apply to wall street and main street. in taxes, not having a set of rules that apply for the very rich and one for the rest of us. and this is the difference between the candidates substantively, between myself and my opponent -- >> sure. >> -- and it's also who are you fighting for and what have you done with your life recently? >> and i think we can come to the conclusion that paul ryan hasn't done much for the man on

top of the ticket, because president obama seems to be holding a very solid lead and you are gaining in wisconsin. all the best to you, congresswoman tammy baldwin. thanks for joining us tonight on "the ed show." coming up, mitt romney is trying hard to woo latino voters. is it too little, too late? that's next. it's a big story in florida. then mitt romney is out with a bogus new commercial on the coal industry. tonight, we set the record straight with communication workers of america president larry cohen. stay with us. there are patients who will question,

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welcome back to "the ed show." the romney campaign says its goal is to win 38% of the latino vote. they got quite an uphill climb, don't you think? on their hands. >> the question is, if i were elected and congress were to pass the dream act, would i veto it? and the answer is, yes. >> well, the answer is self-deportation. >> so we went to the company and said, look, you can't have any illegals working on our property. that's -- i'm running for office, for pete's sake. i can't have illegals. >> mitt romney currently trails president obama among latino voters by 30 points in one recent poll. 42 points in another. so his campaign is devoting. significant resources to latino outreach. one romney adviser tells "the new york times" that the

campaign is organizing the most aggressive hispanic outreach of any republican presidential campaign. it's ratcheting up spanish language advertising and putting mr. romney in front of predominantly latino crowds. last night in miami the republican nominee walked out to neil diamond's song "america" and referred to his spanish-speaking son, craig. >> hola. >> romney's got the pandering part down pretty good, but he's still shaky when it comes to policy. romney tried to downplay positions he held during the gop primaries during a forum with the spanish network, univision. romney wouldn't give a straight answer on whether the nation should follow arizona's lead on immigration and offered no specifics on how he would deal with the millions of young people brought here illegally by their parents. >> i said during my primary campaign time and again we're not going to round up 12 million people. our system is not to deport people. we need to provide a long-term solution. >> i mean, in public he's offering no concrete plan for issues facing latinos, yet behind closed doors he jokes, be

better off, be easier for him if he'd be one. here's more of the mitt romney at the private fund-raiser back in may. >> my dad, as you probably know, was the governor of michigan, was the head of a car company, but he was born in mexico. and had he been born of mexican parents, i'd have a better shot of winning this, but he was unfortunately born of americans living in mexico. been there a number of years. i say that jokingly. >> joining me tonight is annette taddeo, a member of the miami-dade democratic party. great to have you with us, annette. >> my pleasure. >> all politics is local. you're not on the national scene. you're not on the regional scene. you're there in florida. you're there in south florida. how is this going over?

how is mitt romney going to have the largest outreach ever? how's it going to unfold? >> i don't think it's going to work. i think it's too little, too late. i think the voter registration numbers are there to show it as well. voter registration in florida is growing on the democratic side and also on the independent side for hispanics. and right here in miami-dade we just surpassed the democrats who are hispanic, the african-american numbers. we have 550,000 registered democrats in comparison to the republicans which are 373 registered republicans. so we are ground zero. >> okay. >> for registered democrats versus republicans. we are the largest county in miami-dade county of florida. >> so the latino vote in south florida has to be there as strong as it can be if president obama is going to win florida. is that a fair statement? >> it is a fair statement, and i think there's a fallacy.

obviously most people realize that we have a lot of cuban-americans that live in miami-dade county, and they lean republican and most of them do still vote republican, but not the younger generation of cuban-americans. they are voting democrat for the most part. they may not tell their grandparents, but they are voting democrat. in addition to that -- >> yeah. >> -- the gem that we have that we're realizing is that the majority of non cuban hispanics are registering democrat and the ones that are registering independent are voting democrat. >> all right. let's go back to mitt romney's comments. >> yes. >> he says it would be easier if he were mexican. is that offensive? do you find that offensive? how's that going to play? >> i find it very offensive, because first of all, i realize he says he was saying a joke,

but it takes more than being a mexican for us to vote for somebody or being a hispanic for us to vote for somebody. you have to have our values. and he said so many things. he said that he would veto the dream act. he says things like self-deportation is the way to have a comprehensive immigration plan. now yesterday he said something about slapping a green card, you know, to people who, you know, who have degrees. so he's -- he's trying to become this person that we all know he isn't because we know what he said in primary. >> now, i understand you were at president obama's event today at univision. how did president obama do? is he gaining momentum with the latinos in florida? >> i think he is, and i think it was a night and day performance in the sense that president obama was warm. he was honest in his answers. and that's a very clear difference. we like a person who's honest. and what we saw in romney

yesterday was somebody who was not honest, who was trying to reinvent himself. and so in spanish we have a saying -- [ speaking spanish ] so it's like, you know, it's like the truck is coming with the ice cream and you go to get the ice cream and he has no ice cream. that's what romney represents. >> what about the slur he used last night? >> i think that he is just so insulting. he called us -- he also called the name -- he said illegal aliens. i mean, he should know better. he should know better than to say illegal aliens. these are undocumented immigrants. he doesn't know the difference and even the lingo. that is so insulting to hispanic-americans. even those of us who are here and born citizens like myself are very insulted by language like that. >> all right. annette taddeo, miami-dade county.

thank you for joining us tonight. appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. elizabeth warren and scott brown had their first debate tonight. brown went on the attack right away. we have the highlights coming up. a lot more coming up in the next half hour of the "the ed show." stay right here. the policies the current administration has is attacking my livelihood. >> they're wanting to close these mines down. >> mitt romney is getting in trouble for using unpaid workers in his new ad. tonight, i'll tell you why this story and his story about a chinese factory should trouble every wage earner in this country. [ horse neighs ]

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if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ...nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. thanks for staying with us tonight here on "the ed show." mitt romney is out with a new commercial spotlighting president obama's so-called war on coal. there are some major problems with this commercial. first, it's inaccurate. second, it shows miners who were forced to attend the ohio event

where the ad was filmed. >> obama's ruining the coal industry. >> policies of the current administration's got is attacking my livelihood. >> they're wanting to close these mines down. i got little ones at home, a wife that's needing me. >> we have 250 years of coal. why wouldn't we use it? utility bills are up. people wonder how they're going to have a brighter future. if they can't see how they can make it to the end of the next month. >> regulation is only partly to blame for the layoffs in the coal industry. the main culprit, the free market. natural gas hit its lowest price in a decade, forcing power companies to make the switch. we should also point out ohio's added about 300 mining jobs under president obama. then there's the workers used in this commercial. shortly after the event took place, some of the miners contacted a west virginia local radio station.

they said they were forced to attend the event by management. the mine was also closed the day of romney's rally and pay was docked for the miners. mitt romney is using these workers as props? he doesn't care about them. he's just using them as a backdrop to try to gain some votes in a swing state. and i think there's a clip, seriously, i think there's a clip in this secret fund-raising video that shows mitt romney's real view of workers. there's a portion where romney talks about a visit he made to a chinese factory while he was at bain. take a look at this. >> as we were walking to this facility, sees them work, the number of hours they worked per day. what they earned, living in dormitories with the little bathrooms at the end, maybe ten rooms. in the rooms they had 12 girls per room. and around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire and guard towers and we said, gosh, i can't believe that you, you know, you keep these girls in.

they said, no, no, no, this is to keep other people from coming in because people want to badly to come work in this fact we that we have to keep them out. the bain partner i was with during the meeting said 95% of life is settled if you're born in america. this is -- this is an amazing land. and what we have is unique and fortunately it is so special we're sharing it with the world. >> i just don't buy that. my opinion, mitt romney is making the case that we can get more out of our workers here in america. he thinks workers are just lucky to be born here. now, hold it. we're all lucky to be americans. there's no question about that. we all feel lucky to live in the greatest country in the world. but the labor issue sticks with me. i think he's saying look how they're doing it over there. they're just happy to have a job over there. if we do that here, we could make a whole lot more money. that's what his crowd is all about. this man has no connection to

the middle class. he has no concern for them at all. and he leaves me with the impression that in america that we can get more out of workers and we can depress wages. he's all about profit. i think what romney wants to do is get labor to the point where workers are, hey, just like they are over in china. i mean, they're begging to come to work. because there's nothing else out there. there's no collective bargaining. they want to get away with that. the way they want to get the ball rolling is just to destroy collective bargaining across the board, make every state right to work, to make sure you can absolutely crush whatsoever. mitt romney doesn't care about workers, never has. he cares about profit, concentrating the wealth. i think these are core beliefs of mitt romney. it's one of the reasons why he hasn't been able to connect with the middle class and i think that this is the real mitt romney. i think that mitt romney is real dangerous to working men and women in this country with his philosophy. and i really do believe that he was telling, in my opinion, telling those high-dollar donors that, you know, we could get more out of labor in america.

look how it is in other countries. let's turn to larry cohen, president of communication workers of america. larry, good to have you with us tonight. >> great do be here. >> you bet. what's your response to romney's comments on visiting the chinese factory and what me saw and how we're so lucky to be in america and maybe we can get more out of american workers? what's your take on it? >> i think you nailed it, ed. i think romney and folks like him want us all to get bained. they want us all to feel like we're lucky to have a job. that you give up your rights when you come on the job. that if your pay is cut, your health care is cut, your pensions are cut, your job is cut, you should still feel lucky. and, in fact, what we need to say when we vote and when we do our work in the next -- in the weeks ahead, we need to say that we need to stick together as working americans, whether we have unions or not, we need to stand up for our rights. we need to stand up for our values. we need to stand up for our jobs. we need trade policy.

not policy based on being bained and bain moving our jobs around the world to wherever they're cheaper. >> what does it say about mitt romney using those coal workers, almost like furniture, moving them around where they fit? and the story behind them is many of them were intimidated. they didn't want to be there. they didn't get paid for that day. and, of course, the company has gone on local radio saying the reason why those workers had to be there is because all the management wanted to go see mitt romney and there were some safety issues there. clearly that's not the story the workers were telling. what does it say about romney that he actually used those workers when they were forced in that situation? >> i think he's got himself in a spot where he'll use anybody. whether he makes comments about, i wish i was latino, or whether he pretends to be supporting working people when, in fact, those workers as you said weren't paid. when he uses actors instead of workers, themselves. i mean, this is the climate of fear that has, frankly, many of our members and other working

people in this country ready to -- they're fired up doing voter registration in the weeks ahead, getting ready for early voting in states like ohio and saying to friends and neighbors, there's a clear choice here, and this is the time to stand up and fight back. >> and romney, of course, on record saying he wants every state to be right to work. what's that mean to you? >> it's not just right to work. they don't want any recognition. they don't want any collective bargaining. they believe that that's just a nuisance. that's in the way of being bained and the kind of agenda bain has. they think that working people should just be another commodity, be glad to come in the door, smile like the workers he described in the chinese factory. even though we know this was a record year for strikes in china. workers in china, in fact, they're standing up and fighting back in their own way.

we need to fight back in our way with the values that we have. and with our sense of community, our sense of strength, our sense of hope and faith and love and we will do that in the weeks ahead. >> what about ohio? what about pennsylvania? what about florida? what about where the voter suppression is taking place, at the laws that have been passed to disincentive americans who have voted in ease in the past all of a sudden have to pass through a bunch of hoops? what do you hear in ohio? >> i hear in ohio that people are fired up. it's not just in the presidential race. it's sherrod brown, people like betty sutton. it's elections down the line. people know more than ever we need good public policy. we'll register people, as hard as it may be. >> is it more intense than 2008, larry? is it more intense than 2008? >> i don't know that it's more intense than 2008. it's more intense, more grassroots than anything romney is doing and enough to win nose states you just listed. >> larry cohen, great to have you with us tonight. appreciate your time so much. >> my pleasure. coming up, some of the best

debate moments from one of the country's biggest senate races. the debate just ended. we have some great highlights just ahead from massachusetts. ♪ [ female announcer ] pop in a whole new kind of clean. with tide pods. just one removes more stains than the 6 next leading pacs combined pop in. stand out. and get outstanding deals with the travelocity fall hotel sale. you can save up to 40% on select hotels. so book your hotel now and save up to 40%. hurry, offer ends soon. book now at travelocity.

still to come, highlights from tonight's debate from boston between scott brown and elizabeth warren. felix arroyo will join me with analysis. listen to my radio show, sirius radio channel 127 and progressive across the country noon to 3:00. follow me on twitter @edshow like "the ed show" on twitter. in america today we're running out of a vital resource we need to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone's ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready.

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visit progressive.com today. tonight in the survey i asked you, do you agree with karl rove? will mitt romney's problems pass? 4% of you say yes, 96% of you say no. coming up, the big debate in massachusetts. senator scott brown challenges elizabeth warren's ethnic heritage? see how she responded, when we come back. want to try to crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it!

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monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro. senator scott brown tried to find a way out of his debate with democratic opponent elizabeth warren tonight. but when senate majority leader harry reid canceled all senate voting for the rest of the day, brown had no excuse. the candidates met tonight in their first debate for brown's senate seat. in his opening comments this evening brown took a pot shot at his opponent over her claims about her heritage. >> professor warren claimed that she was a native american, a

person of color, and as you can see, she's not. that being said, she checked the box, and she had an opportunity actually to make a decision throughout her career when she applied to penn and harvard, she checked the box claiming she was a native american. and, you know, clearly she's not. that being said, i don't know, and neither do viewers know whether, in fact, she got ahead as a result of that checking of the box. >> when i was growing up, these are the stories i knew about my heritage. i believed my mother and my father and my aunts and my uncles. i never asked anybody for a documentation. i know this, my mother and father loved each other very, very much. they wanted to get married. my father's family said no because my mother was part delaware and part cherokee. you know, i never used it, never used it for getting into college, never used it for getting into law school. >> senator brown spent part of the week distancing himself about mitt romney's comments about 47% of america.

brown is trying to strike a moderate image as a republican senator in a very blue state. he stayed the course tonight by pointing out how similar he is to elizabeth warren on several issues. >> we're both pro choice, both support roe v. wade. she's wrong. i'm going to make sure catholics are not pitted against their faith, number one. number two, women's rights in terms of fair play, we have laws already on the books. lilly ledbetter which is something i would have supported had i been there is already in effect. >> joining me now is felix orroyo, boston city councilor at large. felix, good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> this really was elizabeth warren's first big debate on the stage ever. let's start with the big picture. did anybody move the needle tonight? what do you think? >> i think so, but the needle didn't move consistently in elizabeth warren's favor from the last few polls that have been showing.

to me, she clearly won the debate and let middle class family, working class families know whose side she's on. scott brown, as much as he wants to tell us he's on the side of working class families, has a record that proves he's not. >> how do you think she got by the answer about her ethnicity? has this been a real major issue in massachusetts? >> it's a major issue because scott brown can't let it go because it's easier to talk about a fake story than talk about your real record. yes, she said she's native american. it's been said. her family told her she was. both my parents told me they were born in puerto rico. i have yet to ask them for their birth certificate to prove that. i understand why she did that. however, let's be clear, every employer that commented on this said they did not hire her because she was a native american. ed, i'll go further. as a puerto rico, i'm a person of color. for scott brown to suggest it would be easier for a native american or any person of color in this workforce because of the color of their skin and heritage is insulting.

>> are you surprised he brought that up? would massachusetts view that as somewhat of a cheap shot? >> i'm hoping massachusetts voters view it as a cheap shot. you ask me if i'm surprised he brought that up. no, i'm not surprised he brought it up and not surprised he ran away from his record and ran away from mitt romney. >> okay. elizabeth warren took senator brown to task on a number of issues. here's an exchange on president obama's jobs bill. >> senator brown last fall voted against three jobs bills in a row. jobs bills that would have put 22,000 people -- supported 22,000 jobs near the commonwealth of massachusetts. a jobs bill that would have prevented the layoffs of teachers, firefighters and police officers. >> three jobs bills she refers to with all due respect would have raised your taxes $450 billion. >> senator brown can't run away from his own votes. how is this going to play out? >> i think it's playing out exactly as it should be. elizabeth warren is a first-time candidate. many people didn't know her name. and we're talking today, she's leading in most major polls coming out of massachusetts. as plain as it is. he is who it is. she's the fighter for the middle class.

she's the fighter for working families. that's what her record is. he doesn't want to talk about his record. if i had his record, i wouldn't want to talk about his record, either. >> there was also a lengthy exchange on taxes. here's part of it. >> i'm not going to raise taxes. i'm going to protect the pocketbooks and wallets of everybody listening. if you want someone who's going to spend your tax dollars, give it to professor warren. she'll spend them. >> senator has voted to let taxes go up on hardworking families. he has said he will defend the top 2% and top 3% so they don't have to two back to the tax rates of the clinton years and he will hold the other 98% of families hostage. >> how does this play out in massachusetts? do you think that most residents in that state want to see the bush tax cuts expire? it sounds to me like scott brown wants to extend the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. >> he absolutely does. scott brown turned his back on 98% of the americans with his position on taxes. even mitt romney has only turned his back on 47% of us. it's, to me, it's asinine he

would call her, someone trying to raise taxes, when he's fighting as hard as he can keeping middle class family's taxes up so he can have the 27% richest people in the country and richest people in the world continue to have tax subsidies. >> where do you think this is going to go? she's surging in the polls, has the first lead she's had in some time. why do you think that's happening? >> because she's a genuine person. she is who she is. she believes in the struggle of the middle class. she knows it from her home life. this is what her expertise is in. when she goes to the united states senate, because she'll be the next senator for massachusetts, she'll be fighting for middle class families, working families. she understands the issues and for this economy to be strong we need a strong middle class. scott brown record shows he believes you get a strong economy by making things easier